I've given up trying to imagine why there is a neatly stitched and lined opening in the headliner about four inches wide centered at the front edge.

The only idea that occurred to me was that it is provided as a hand hold for manually pulling up the top in case of hydraulic failure, but wouldn't that be advertising an engineering deficiency... like a home builder providing a bucket in case the roof should leak?

Please soneone relieve my itching curiosity.

 

That's exactly what it is

 

Interestingly, when exploring a replacement, the company rep needed to know if this hole was present. Apparently the spec has changed over time.

 

It was not even sewed on all the 97's I've seen.
.

 

True, it was not stitched on the original headliner on my early '97, but the replacement headliner I had installed has a nice finished pocket.

 

My '04 has it(original top).
Did not know what it was for.

 

Nice to know I thought my 97 was missing a piece of trim

 

The hole is there so you can assist the top in securing the top latch. The reason is that the latching action is the weakest point in the hydraulic top system, but requires the most force and puts too much strain on the hoses, hence the inevitable green shower. For raising and latching the top, Jaguar put that hand hold there so the driver can assist the latching mechanism by pulling down on the roof so the latch mechanism doesn't have to work so hard.


Gus, want to chime in?

 

I think according to the handbook, the hole is for assisting in manual operation of the roof with the pump valve off. It says to not use force in assisting the pump.

 

"It says to not use force in assisting the pump."

This is from the same company that designed the marginal hydraulics to begin with.